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for you, no questions asked.”
    “That, my friends, would be a violation of the young woman’s basic civil rights,” began Bish. “Something I simply can not—”
    “Ambrose, persuade this bugger!” The catman nudged the robot.
    A few scabs of white paint fell from the mechanism as he lumbered closer to the bar. “Give us . . . the pussy,” he said in a rumbling, rattling voice. “Else I . . . use me fingers . . . on you, sumbitch!”
    “This lout’s in dreadful shape,” said Electro quietly to Tad. “A victim of very slipshod maintenance.”
    Tad said, “These guys came here to drag away some girl against her will. We can’t—”
    “We have to step aside and let them go about their business,” said Electro.
    “But it is a violation of her civil—”
    “We don’t know the circumstances or the issues involved. Therefore our best course of action is to ig—”
    Zzitz!
    Zizzle!
    Zam!
    Ambrose, the delapidated robot, had aimed three of his metal fingers at the proprietor. From each in turn he spurted a beam of different colored light.
    The first had caused Bish to stiffen, the second made him howl and shut his eyes, the third sent him falling to the floor.
    “Waiter, come here!” one of the red lizards ordered a catman waiter. “You know where the blonde pussy’s room is! Take us!”
    “Really, mate, I’m as ignorant as a newborn quilp as to—”
    “Ambrose!”
    “A moment now, cobber. It occurs to me you must be seeking the lass in room 26B. I’ll give you a key. I’ll show you how to get up there. I’ll fix you a snack from the sandwich board.”
    “Get the key,” the catman instructed Ambrose.
    “Key . . . gimme.” The battered robot tottered in the direction of the fearful waiter.
    The rest of the customers in that area of the cafe moved rapidly back.
    “A disgrace to the profession,” said Electro, frowning at the actions of Ambrose.
    “Listen, Electro, we can’t let these guys do this,” insisted Tad. “I mean, break in here, stun the owner, drag off the girl. It’s simply not—”
    “We don’t want to attract attention to ourselves,” reminded Electro. “Otherwise we may never get out of town. Our first loyalty is to your father and your cousins. We can’t afford to—”
    “I know that. But this is wrong, and we have to stop it.”
    Electro shook his green hand. “Forget it, ignore it,” he said. “We’re not going to risk our safety for some unknown runaway wife whose husband is probably fully justified in having her forceably carted back to his hearthside.” The robot moved a hand toward Tad’s arm.
    Tad pushed him away, spun. “I’m going to do something!” He ran, dived at the back of the nearest red lizard man.

Chapter 10
    Hardly turning, almost indifferently, the red lizard man swing back his fist. “Not smart, kid.”
    The hard scaly fist smacked into Tad’s jaw, jolting his head back and causing him to shut his mouth with a grinding snap. One knee slapped the floor; he teetered.
    “Not smart at all.” The lizard man followed with a chop to the neck.
    Tad cried out, biting air. His cheek was all at once hitting the raw wood planking of the cafe floor.
    Zzip!
    What was that? Was it that beat-up robot again?
    The floor seemed to hold him like a magnet held a chunk of iron. Tad struggled, pushed with both hands flat out, finally succeeded in rising to his knees.
    The lizard man was directly above him, one hand raised.
    Tad flinched, before he realized the red lizard was frozen in his position.
    “Most extraordinary,” Bish, conscious and upright again, was saying to Electro. “One rarely encounters a fellow lizard with such powers. By the sacred and allegedly sacred bones of St. Giganticus, that was quite a thing to do with just one finger.”
    “I have a touch of mystical powers.” To the three remaining intruders he said, “I won’t have anyone hurting my young companion. You’d best beat a hasty retreat.”
    “Flog yourself,” snarled the